Gopher men's hockey series at Penn State canceled
Next weekend's men's hockey series between the Minnesota Gophers and Penn State Nittany Lions has been canceled due to "health and safety concerns in the Penn State program," Minnesota Athletics announced Thursday.
That means Penn State's hockey program is dealing with positive COVID-19 tests.
"The contests will likely not be rescheduled," Penn State announced.
The Gophers will get a week to rest up after hosting Michigan State this weekend. They play Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. inside 3M Arena at Mariucci.
Minnesota (17-5 overall, 13-5 Big Ten) has 39 points to lead the Big Ten standings, with Wisconsin (37 points) sitting right behind the Gophers. It's a two-team race since third-place Notre Dame is well behind with 27 points. Wisconsin is hosting Notre Dame this weekend.
After facing Michigan State, the Gophers will close the regular season schedule Mar. 5-6 at home against Michigan, then head off to the Big Ten tournament before the NCAA tournament.
The Gophers are ranked No. 4 in the nation in this week's USCHO poll. Boston College is No. 1, followed by North Dakota and Minnesota State. Wisconsin is No. 5; St. Cloud State is No. 6; and Minnesota-Duluth is No. 8.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.